This is a music commentary! Out of the 10 teas I most encounter and
make at work, I have ranked them according to how awesome they are
(or aren't) and have paired their attributes and characteristics to music
with similar traits. Sound pretentious? Yes, yes it is. Read on...

Peppermint Tea
TASTES LIKE: altoid soup. Peppermint is a horrible blast of jolting herbs to the
sinuses that knocks you out in one merry Christmas-y sip. One of the more
offensive "herbal" teas there are, Peppermint should really only deserve a visit
when treating (ineffectively, at that) a head cold of sorts. It's an acquired taste
though, I hear.
SOUNDS LIKE: the acquired taste - jarring, non-subtle music. Anything abrasive
enough to be considered "exciting" in some circles yet decent to still be
considered music.

Honey Lemon Tea
TASTES LIKE: veggie-burger. Not quite the hoarse-throat soother that is
chamomile, Honey Lemon shows up to the party a notch higher than
Peppermint because instead of being a cup of boiling Vicks vapour rub, Honey
Lemon at least gets a bit of honey-goodness in your system. Unfortunately for
this stereotypical "comfort"-tea, honey is what we put in real tea to make it
smoother, not what we emulate and pair with lemon flavouring, of all things.
SOUNDS LIKE: mainstream's best imitation. While on the surface containing all
the winning characteristics of music bound to uplift your soul and get your toes
tapping, it's not quite what the authentic stuff is made of and leaves a sour
taste in your mouth with repeated listens.

Rooibos Tea
TASTES LIKE: old oatmeal. South Africa's tea of choice and my tea of choice in
South Africa when I found out it's really all that was available, rooibos is a "red
tea" which means little to me but tastes like rubbish unless you throw some
dairy in it and a couple sugars. It's a tea that demands you have diabetes if you
want to enjoy it and even when it's masked by whatever you tossed in it, it still
kind of tastes like a bowl of tepid, liquid porridge.
SOUNDS LIKE: music you'll enjoy when drunk. Sometimes you get what you
pay for when you turn on the radio but sometimes something comes on that
you'll settle for and almost enjoy. The chances you'll like what you hear are
even higher if you're wearing alcohol ears.

Lady Grey Tea
TASTES LIKE: a community garden. Lady Grey, despite having the pleasure of
being a black tea, is just like its name: an effeminate Earl Grey tea. And guess
what? Earl Grey is already the black tea designed for girls. That horrid bergamot
oil that defines any "Grey" tea resounds loud and clear in this watered down cup
of mediocrity.
SOUNDS LIKE: any music that can be described by the term "(band-name)-
lite". If the artist wears its influence on its sleeve and the influencer isn't that
great to start with, it's a match made in heaven.

Green Tea
TASTES LIKE: mystery. I had green tea when I was 7 once and am too lazy to
buy any for the sake of this pointless list. Benefit of a doubt gets this tea ranked
6 out of 10... seems fair.
SOUNDS LIKE: the obvious, uneducated choice.

Earl Grey Tea
TASTES LIKE: black tea for losers. Earl Grey is a popular choice for some reason
but it contains bergamot oil and is therefore condemned to hell. Being in reality
a modified Orange Pekoe tea, Earl Grey resembles a tea that you would want to
drink but really regret drinking quickly. The only instance Earl Grey is necessary
is in a London Fog or when Chamomile is unavailable, in which case it can be
quite kind on a sore throat (when taken with honey). Screw you, honey lemon
herbal tea.
SOUNDS LIKE: the decent side-project. Still better than the watered down,
bastardised imitators but not quite as good as the real thing. It contains most of
the elements of an artist's true success story but throws in a few elements that
make it a little less enjoyable than it should be. Taking a good thing and making
it a little worse for wear.

Chamomile Tea
TASTES LIKE: a warm herbal blanket. Chamomile, like ginger, is nature's
relaxing medicine and was first given to me by an Ecuadorian woman when I
told her my oesophagus had ruptured. Never taken with milk, chamomile is like
using a hovering waterbed to have sex over a sandpaper assembly line. When
life gets tough, it's there to sooth you.
SOUNDS LIKE: the angelic and cliche relaxing album. Something that retains a
sense of mystery in its gentleness but never quite lets you forget that its a
powerful piece of art. Something that can be described by sandpaper hover-sex.

Chai Tea
TASTES LIKE: a bomb. The reigning king of herbal teas, Chai is a peppery
combination of chives, cardamom, fennel and miracles that is good with or
without milk and sugar added - making it both versatile, eclectic and awesome.
Its loud characteristics make it the most distinct type of tea in this list and its
uniqueness and variety of different ingredients (depending on the recipe) also
makes it kind of a wildcard.
SOUNDS LIKE: the out-of-the-box genre-switcher. Unpredictable and technically
impressive, the artist should be interesting and exciting enough to rope those
self-diagnosed with ADD yet grounded and accessible enough to appeal for the
masses.

Orange Pekoe Tea
TASTES LIKE: the middle child. Orange Pekoe really is just a medium-grade of
black tea and not a tea in itself but most of America seems to think it is so we'll
humour it. Orange Pekoe is really just the "second-best" black tea on this list -
it is comforting, yes, and it tastes like your typical black tea (it IS your typical
black tea) but it doesn't reach the heights of our yet-announced winner. It is
always a safe fallback if you don't get your first choice and never disappoints.
SOUNDS LIKE: that inoffensive, enjoyable band. You know, the band that's hard
to have any sort of opinion on - they're not mind-blowing and they're not
horrible beyond belief. They're just a pleasant, inoffensive band that makes
music you enjoy but not music you stand hours in line for. If you left your
Decemberists CD in the house when you went out for a drive, you put this in
without regretting too much.

English Breakfast Tea
TASTES LIKE: life. English Breakfast is the tea of all teas. The blend of black teas
is strong, dependable and perfect for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. It is
what black tea tastes like, only better - it's ready for day-to-day, on-the-go life
but it still relaxes and empowers like any hot caffeinated beverage should. You
can always trust English Breakfast to satisfy you.
SOUNDS LIKE: that band that never sucks. Album in and album out, this band
has yet to outright fail, let alone suck even moderately. They're just that
dependable.

my grandfather steeps his tea on the fire overnight (so in the boiling water all night). It makes the entire house smell amazing and then he pours this black sludge-like "tea" out in the morning and drinks it...that is a kick to the balls

most people from where I live don't put anything in there tea or coffee as a continued sign of respect from world war two. So the idea never really occurred to me and now it just wrecks the whole thing if I do (though milk is tolerable if you need to drink it right away and it's tim hortons level hot)

ya my friend like doing drive-thru because it was a real team effort. I only worked there three weeks before I got a better job that paid a lot more so I never did all that much. Working at Starbucks or really any other coffee place seems a lot better though

I used to live in LA, the weather drove me mad! and yeah, a hot tea doesn't compliment a sweaty day really...

I've worked at other Starbucks and cafes similar and it all depends on who you work with. Tim Hortons is really just fast-food in disguise so there's no pride in anything you make - pressing a button to make a latte is not the same as MAKING a latte by a long shot. Machine-made coffee blows. However, the people I worked with in other places are a combination of snotty, apathetic or just plain bad at their job and that wears you down more than an unintuitive latte machine.

Iced sweet tea (Luzianne mostly, which is Orange pekoe and black) is the beverage of choice in my family; I grew up
drinking it. Add some lemon to it and I've yet to encounter anything so refreshing. Iced green tea is also delicious, but
I've yet to find the perfect balance of green tea, honey, sugar, and lemon when making it myself. My model: Panera
Bread's iced green tea. That shit is awesome.

Yes, chai tea is redundant but it's not in English - and in modern western tea drinking, masala chai isn't what we often call it. Sputnik doesn't speak much Hindi I'm afraid.

Jefflebowski: Twinings is king of all. And by blood, yes - my parents are Scottish and I live in between England and Canada depending on the time of year. Are you?

Johnnyblaze: Irish breakfast is mint too... wonderful stuff but I have trouble making a distinction between it and its English brother so I sort of lump them together. I think it's featured, might've been the work of kind Sowing. Really dislike peppermint... but I do love Oolong. I'm not sure why I omitted it.

I meant peppermint as a flavor in general, meaning, the flavor of peppermint is kind of weird over all. Only okay as an actual peppermint candy/gum thing. Like, when people put it in coffee or baked goods it's kind of nasty. Imo.

Green tea rules, but I'd add this to the list http://www.algonquintea.com/content/teas/lucid-dream-tea.shtml Made with Sweet Gale and a lot of bullshit, it actually does make your dreams easier to remember. Doesn't taste like shit either. Khanate + this tea = a crazy night.

i do have a life here yes, who knows in a week though, all the volunteers are leaving me and people are too scared to come to kenya what with the terrorism scares so no new volunteers are coming in. but I do spend most evenings half watching movies with the volunteers while i fuck around on the internet

What got you to Africa, anyway? Most people seem to scared because of all the sickness and warlords and shit.(which I kinda suspect to be stereotypes for a big part) Though I hear it has nice landscapes.

And wasn't Waior the army guy? So Idk but if he is I kinda doubt he can just sputnik around while doing soldier stuff.

fuck my life, i just spent AGES typing up this pathetic circlejerk of a list for my 10000th comment with 65 of my favourite users and i just closed the wrong tab and now it is gone. fuck my life. so much wasted time what the actual fuck. i did descriptions, looked up user's ratings to put them with a 5 of theirs, it actually took over an hour and i was nearly done. god fucking damnit.

"fuck my life, i just spent AGES typing up this pathetic circlejerk of a list for my 10000th comment with 65 of my favourite users and i just closed the wrong tab and now it is gone. fuck my life. so much wasted time what the actual fuck. i did descriptions, looked up user's ratings to put them with a 5 of theirs, it actually took over an hour and i was nearly done. god fucking damnit.